Early fall storm hammers Calif raisins in fields

FRESNO, Calif. 
An unusually early winter storm dumped nearly an inch of rain on parts of California's agricultural heartland in less than five hours, flooding streets, uprooting trees and soaking a bumper crop of raisins drying in vineyards.

In the Sierra Nevada, snow has forced the closing of the 9,300-foot Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park when it accumulated to about 7,000 feet.

Forecasters expect the snow level expected to drop to 6,000 feet throughout the day as the cold front continues.

The storm hit Tuesday in Northern California, then swept through the central portions before the tail brought rainfall to Southern California by midmorning on Wednesday.

Growers say nearly half of the raisin crop was soaked as it dried in the fields. California produces 40 percent of the world's raisins.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

An early fall storm stranded big rigs in the Sierra Nevada and snarled roadways throughout California on Wednesday while unleashing gusty winds and snow in the mountains.

"Cars into utility poles on slick roads, that sort of thing," said PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno. "We're looking to get almost everyone back on by early afternoon."

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which provides electricity to Sacramento and part of Placer counties, had outages affecting 1,100 customers when trees and branches collapsed onto power lines or blew fuses overnight.

Power was restored to all customers before dawn after outages that averaged about an hour, spokesman Chris Capra said.

"Things came in pretty quickly and left pretty quickly too, with regards to this being the first rain storm of the year. That's a good thing," Capra said.

In Southern California, the Los Angeles Fire Department had sandbags available for anyone concerned about flooding.

Steve Anderson, a meteorologist for the weather service in Monterey, said, a high pressure system hanging over the Midwest has been making the storm travel farther south when storms would usually be rolling farther north this time of the year. That means leaves were still on the trees when the storm hit.

"The leaves can act as a sail and bring some of those trees down," said Joe Molica, a spokesman for PG&E, which services 9.4 million electricity and natural gas customers in the northern and central parts of the state.

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Associated Press writers Sheila V Kumar in Sacramento, Brooke Donald in San Jose and Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report.